There is still time to fight for Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA) inclusion in U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) final rule during its second public comment period which ends this Friday, January 13. Help us advocate for CRNAs by clicking here to customize and submit a pre-written comment letter which will be sent directly to the VA.
Since its announcement on December 13th, ANA has been highlighting the VA’s groundbreaking rule which would allow nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists and certified nurse-midwives to work independently without physician supervision in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). As the nation’s largest employer of nurses, this rule will allow APRNs full practice authority regardless of state or local law restrictions, but excluded over 900 CRNAs currently employed by the VA. While we commend VA Secretary McDonald and Under Secretary Shulkin for taking this critical step to ensure our nation’s Veterans receive the high quality health care they have earned and deserve, we continue to stress our extreme disappointed that the VA failed to extend full practice authority to CRNAs. Check out ANA’s press release for more background.
ANA has written a letter to the VA urging them to implement and include CRNAs in its final rule. ANA is also co-signing comment letters with the Nursing Community and APRN coalition to aggressively fight for CRNA inclusion in the VA’s final rule. Please join us in advocating for CRNAs by submitting a personal comment letter by Friday, January 13th.